The mayon volcano is again spewing ashes following a phreatic explosion on Sunday. File photo

Following months of quiet, Mount Mayon erupted again on Sunday afternoon, July 1, sending white to light gray ash clouds 500 meters up the sky.

The eruption took place around 12:30 pm on Sunday. This was months after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) lowered the volcano's alert level status from 3 to 2 in March.

Ed Laguerta, resident volcanologist of Phivolcs in Bicol, explained that Sunday's eruption was phreatic in nature.

A phreatic explosion is a steam-driven episode that occurs when water beneath the ground or on the surface is heated by magma, lava, hot rocks, or new volcanic deposits.

Nearly 75,000 travelers have been stranded on the popular resort island after Mount Agung erupted. Volcanic ash can threaten aircraft by causing their engines to "flame out."

Thousands of travelers are stranded on the Indonesian resort island of Bali after a volcanic eruption forced authorities to shut down its main international airport in the early hours of Friday.

Nearly 450 flights have been canceled, affecting more than 75,000 passengers, and the airport will remain closed until 7 p.m. local time (1100 UTC), a spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency said. Airlines that have canceled flights include Air Asia, Jet Star, Qantas and Virgin.

Nearly all of the major news outlets last week ran attention-grabbing headlines uncritically reporting a supposed crisis of rapidly increasing melting of Antarctica. According to the reporting, accelerated melting of the continent's ice could raise sea level significantly and bring catastrophic coastal flooding to communities all over the world. If true, we should all be very alarmed about severe negative consequences to hundreds of millions of people.

This spate of Antarctic alarm was triggered by a study from an international team that measured ice volume and reported a dramatic increase in ice loss in recent years. This new study contradicts previous research which had consistently shown the continent steadily gaining ice volume since the beginning of the satellite era in the late 1970s.

NASA glaciologist Jay Zwally -- likely the pre-eminent expert on Antarctic ice accumulation and loss -- published a study in 2015 showing that ice loss in western Antarctica* and the Antarctic Peninsula was more than offset by significant accumulations in the rest of the continent. Both Zwally and the recent researchers were measuring the same thing, but the difference appears to be in the corrections made in adjusting for the movement of the Earth beneath the ice.

Kilauea, the most active volcano on Hawaii, has been in continual eruption since 1983. It entered a new phase in early May when fractures along a rift on the eastern side of the volcano opened during a series of earthquakes - some of which became volcanic fissures from which lava was erupted.

These fissures allowed magma that had been ponded in a lava summit lake to drain onto the ground surface as lava flows lower down the mountain. This was close to a residential subdivision known as Leilani Estates, where a new volcanic cone has since developed.

Kilauea is buttressed on its north-west side by the enormous mass of Mauna Loa volcano, but its south-east slopes face the ocean and are unsupported. The magma from beneath the volcano usually erupts from the summit of the volcano, and there was a spectacular lava lake there in March. However two rift zones (areas where the volcano is splitting apart), extending east and south-west from the summit, can make it possible for lava to erupt from Kilauea's flanks too.

SINGING VOLCANO For several months after Ecuador’s Cotopaxi volcano erupted in August 2015, scientists recorded odd patterns of reverberating sound.

SINGING VOLCANO

For several months after Ecuador's Cotopaxi volcano erupted in August 2015, scientists recorded odd patterns of reverberating sound.

Ecuador's Cotopaxi volcano has a deep and distinct voice. Between late 2015 and early 2016, Cotopaxi repeated an unusual pattern of low-frequency sounds that researchers now say is linked to the unique geometry of the interior of its crater. Identifying the distinct "voiceprint" of various volcanoes could help scientists better anticipate changes within the craters, including those that foretell an eruption.

Ecuadoran scientists installed a network of specialized microphones on the volcano's flanks that can record very low frequency sounds, or infrasound. Two weeks after the volcano's August 2015 eruption, the network recorded the unusual sound pattern - a strong, clear oscillation that tapers off through time. The sound curve resembles a screw, or "tornillo" in Spanish, scientists report online June 13 in Geophysical Research Letters.

Via Eurekalert KINGSTON, R.I. - June 22, 2018 - A researcher from the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography and five other scientists have discovered an active volcanic heat source beneath the Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica.

The discovery and other findings, which are critical to understanding the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, of which the Pine Island Glacier is a part, are published in the paper, "Evidence of an active volcanic heat source beneath the Pine Island Glacier," in the latest edition of Nature Communications.

Assistant Professor Brice Loose of Newport, a chemical oceanographer at GSO and the lead author, said the paper is based on research conducted during a major expedition in 2014 to Antarctica led by scientists from the United Kingdom. They worked aboard an icebreaker, the RRS James Clark Ross, from January to March, Antarctica's summer.

Comment: Volcanic activity around the world is on the rise, so it's no wonder that the West Antarctic ice sheet is seeing a similar increase in activity:

At least 250 people have been evacuated from the vicinity of the largest volcano in the Galapagos Islands, Sierra Negra, after a series of earthquakes awakened the colossus, according to Ecuadorean authorities.

"The colossus is awakening," Environment Minister Tarsicio Hail said, announcing that Ecuador's authorities are closely watching the seismic and geological activity near one of the world's largest calderas, craters left by previous eruptions.

At least 250 people have already been evacuated from communities in the immediate vicinity of the volcano, and all tourist activity has been temporarily halted in the area, reports El Universo.

Comment: With so many volcanoes waking up at the same time, is it related to a minute slow down in the Earth's rotation, as some scientists predicted?

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has announced that the alert status for Mount Anak Krakatau, located in the regency of South Lampung, is still at the level 'caution'.

Following an eruption, the Volcanic and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center had issued the level 2 alert waspada (caution), on June 18. It is the second of four alert levels.

According to a BMKG statement released on Monday, volcanic smoke resulting from was the mountain's increasing activity was heading south. According to news agency Antara, the BMKG would update the public with any information on significant changes at Mount Anak Krakatau.

The BMKG has also stated that the eruption would not affect flights to and from Radin Inten II Airport in Lampung, nor sea travel, including ferries on the Bakauheni - Merak route.

With the alert, tourists and the public are advised to steer clear of Mount Anak Krakatau and the surrounding area. (wng)

Comment: Worldwide volcanic and geological activity has been rising in recent months: